Environment
Allegheny County has the 14th worst air quality in the entire country on the metric of particulate matter. 10 of the 13 areas that are worse than us suffer from wildfires exacerbated by climate change and can do very little to improve their local air quality. On the other hand, Allegheny County is primarily plagued by a few large corporations which are terrible environmental stewards. This has led to Allegheny County’s childhood asthma rate significantly exceeding the national average. A study in the journal of asthma found that children in Allegheny County who live near large sources of pollution have asthmas rates at an astounding triple the national average.
I believe that every resident in Allegheny County deserves clean air. We shouldn’t have to worry about our children going outside at recess because it’s difficult for them to breathe. As a former Operations Manager at US Steel Clairton, I understand that for many large corporations, the pollution they produce is simply the cost of doing business. I support increasing the penalties on the county’s worst polluters for sacrificing our health, and I believe that we must ensure that the Allegheny County Clean Air funds obtained from these fines are utilized in a manner which maximizes our local air quality. I also believe the newly created Department of Sustainability will be an excellent asset in improving the air quality within Allegheny County.
Taking Advantage of our Economic Opportunity
I previously talked about holding companies accountable when they put corporate profits over the health and safety of the people of Allegheny County. The flip-side to that coin is attracting companies that provide good pay, benefits, and take community stakeholders into account in their business model. We have an excellent opportunity to do just that in District 5 as we divest from fossil fuels and the demand for renewable energy grows. More renewable energy generation means that the country will need more electricians, more sheet metal workers, and more solar PV installers, and there is no reason that these good, union jobs can’t come to Allegheny County.
In order to make that happen, I believe we need to ensure we have the skilled workforce to incentivize businesses to come here. As School Director in Bethel Park, I just voted in favor of $29 million in funding for renovations to Steel Center for Career and Technical Education. This funding will help Steel Center expand their programs and provide our students with the skills they need to begin their careers. The same must be done at the county level. As your Councilman, I will work with the new County Executive, other elected officials, businesses, and local non-profits like Landforce to make this happen. One immediate area we can address to help provide these resources is by adequately funding the Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC). I believe that the county needs to, at a minimum, meet its statutory obligation to provide 1/3 of CCAC funding.
Public Safety
In 2022 there were 128 homicides across Allegheny County, a majority of which involved firearms, marking the highest total in recent years. As a Mom’s Demand Action Candidate of Distinction, I understand the incredibly harmful impact that gun violence is having on our society, and the need for common sense gun safety laws to prevent unfettered and irresponsible gun access and use. Unfortunately, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s preemption statute prevents Allegheny County from creating our own gun safety legislation. While local legislation isn’t possible, the county has begun implementing violence interruption programs, an initiative I strongly support. I believe we need to increase the resources allocated to these programs, and ensure they are a regular part of our yearly operating budget.
In addition to tackling gun violence, I believe the county also needs to do a better job at addressing the three primary root causes of crime: undiagnosed/untreated mental health issues, substance use disorders, and instability due to poverty. For decades we have implemented the same “tough on crime” policies to little benefit. Rather than making our communities safer, we’ve exacerbated the aforementioned underlying issues and harmed some of our most vulnerable communities in the process. On the other hand, addressing the root causes of crime has been shown to build stronger and safer communities. In Denver, a five year randomized control trial found that providing housing subsidies to those at risk of being unhoused found a 40% reduction in arrests among participants. Another study in Philadelphia found that abandoned building remediation reduced firearm violence by 39%. As County Councilperson for District 5, I will seek to invest in these programs which invest in our communities to make them safer, stronger, and more prosperous.
Allegheny County Jail
The conditions inside the Allegheny County Jail are reprehensible. No human being should have to deal with cockroaches and rodent feces where their food comes from, no heat when it’s below freezing, being banned from purchasing books, or not receiving their insulin. While this is true regardless of whether or not someone has committed a crime, I think it’s important to note that approximately 81% of people in the jail are not convicted of a crime and are waiting for a trial or hearing. With this level of negligence, it’s no wonder that the death rate in the Allegheny County Jail is twice the already far too high national average.
The county can not afford another day of Warden Harper’s mismanagement, let alone another year until County Executive Fitzgerald’s term is up. I believe that Mr. Fitzgerald needs to remove the warden and find a candidate who is willing to ensure that incarcerated individuals are treated with basic dignity and respect.
Allegheny Code currently allows for incarcerated individuals to be required to perform manual labor without pay for up to 8 hours a day. While the 13th amendment allows for slavery if someone is convicted of a crime, that is no excuse for allowing it within our jail. I support the ending of forced labor for incarcerated individuals and the paying of a fair wage for labor that is performed voluntarily.
Constituent Engagement
As Bethel Park School Director, I have made it a central focus to always be accessible and responsive to my constituents. You can constantly find me at community functions from our Memorial Day parade, to the school play, to football games on Friday nights. When I ran for School Director, I knocked over 2,000 doors in Bethel Park to learn what our community cared about most. As a candidate for County Council District 5, I am doing the same in Dormont, Mount Lebanon, and Upper Saint Clair. Upon being elected to the School Board, I also created a Facebook page where I provide the most up to date, detailed information to our community so that they are aware of what is going on in the district. While local governance often goes overlooked, I believe that it has the most direct impact on the people of our community.
Protecting Civil Rights
Over the last several years we have seen an eroding of our civil rights as the Supreme Court has gained a 6-3 conservative majority. If elected to County Council, I promise to do everything in my power to protect the rights of every single member of our community, regardless of race, religion, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
I support the efforts by Councilman Duerr to protect abortion access in Allegheny County through the use of trigger laws. As County Councilman, I would support similar trigger laws to protect the rights of same sex marriage as well as the right to receive gender affirming healthcare. I also believe that Allegheny County must strengthen tenants’ rights, specifically the right to legal counsel. As a volunteer with Pittsburgh Union of Regional Renters, I saw tenants being put at a disadvantage in eviction hearings due to the inability to afford legal representation. Ensuring that civil rights are protected also requires adequately funding our Public Defender’s office. While the PDs and DAs recently negotiated an increase in starting salary from $45k to $65k, the PD’s office remains significantly underfunded, receiving roughly half of what the DA’s office does.
Studies have shown that people of color are disproportionately stopped, subjected to use of force, and even killed by police. As County Councilman, I will also work with local municipalities to participate in the Allegheny County Independent Police Review Board. Carrying a badge and a gun is a tremendous responsibility that demands the appropriate level of oversight to instill a sense of safety and trust within our community.
Property Tax System
The current Allegheny County property tax assessment system is extremely unfair and inequitable. There has not been a countywide reassessment since 2012 (when it was court mandated), a practice which would be illegal in 38 states, all of which require regular assessments of all property. Instead, new home owners often have their assessments appealed by taxing bodies like school districts, creating wildly different tax bills for similar houses on the same street. This “newcomer’s tax” disproportionately impacts first time homeowners, who often do not have the wealth accrued to handle the burden of this enhanced tax assessment. Because homes in lower-income areas have appreciated less, this taxing practice has also become extremely regressive, with Black homeowners in Pittsburgh paying an estimated 8% more in property taxes relative to the market value of their homes than white homeowners.
In order to create an equitable and fair system, Allegheny County should be performing regular countywide reassessments. This will ensure that someone who purchased a home in 2022 does not pay three times the taxes as their neighbor who has a similar home but purchased in 10 years earlier (as seen in the graphic to the left). While many have concerns that this will result in greatly increased taxes, this will not be the case. Pennsylvania’s “anti-windfall” provision ensures that any increase in assessed property value must be offset by a corresponding decrease in the taxing body’s millage rate. For example, if a school district has $1 billion in assessed value with a millage rate of 20, they would collect $20 million/year in taxes. A reassessment which increases the district’s assessed value to $2 billion would require the district to cut their millage rate in half to 10, keeping total taxes at $20 million. All the reassessment does is make the distribution of taxes more fair and just.
In conjunction with regular reassessments, I believe that the Allegheny County Senior Citizen Tax Relief program (Act 77) should be expanded. The current scope of the program is too restrictive, and the relief it provides is insufficient. I believe that it is vitally important that our seniors on reduced or fixed incomes have the ability to remain in their homes and grow old with comfort and dignity.
